Concord
by MrPatrickKing
Summary: In the midst of the Reaper War, all species look for salvation. Can one man and his rag-tag squad of unlikely companions be that salvation, or are they doomed to fall?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

_Reaper War: Day 1_

Lieutenant Commander Charles Barkley sat at a table in the corner of the nightclub Purgatory, doing something he never saw himself doing…going out. While watching people flail about and restraining the utmost urge to smack himself in the face. Barkley decided to take a much needed break and head down towards Purgatory; the most popular bar on the Citadel. This idea was immediately deemed an awful idea, once he walked in through the doors. Former Alliance soldiers were splayed about the entrance in a graceful drunken fashion; he even saw one man trying to make out with a salarian. Now, he sat by himself waiting for entertainment and r&r to fall into his lap.

Being the quiet man that he was, one to never void off from the normal course of action, he suddenly decided he was way over his head, well when it came to socializing and having "fun." He was perfectly at peace with an old musty book in one hand and a glass of wine in the other, but from the consistent nagging of his colleagues, and his own mother, he decided to shut them up by going out. Again, an awful idea, how do people put up with the pulsating music and strobing lights? Oh, that's right. They consume copious amounts of alcohol. With his mission set in stone, Barkley debriefed himself on the mission parameters: Find the bar, get the booze, drink the booze, and get more booze. Yeah sure, that sounds like fun. Bolstering his self-confidene, he straightened his back, and begun his march towards the bar.

"Uhmm, Commander Barkley?"

Immediately he recognized the voice, not the person per se, but the tone of the voice. The tone of a nervous private, sent to retrieve a high-ranking officer, who was just about to begin having fun. Barkley placed two fingers, on both of his temples, and began to rub them. Maybe this private sent to retrieve him, actually saved him. All the lights and sound were giving him a headache, even though he did plan to drown that all out with whatever drink he could find. Placing his hands to his side, Barkley spun around and took note of the two saluting marines, waiting for him to respond.

"At ease, what can I do for you two?" Barkley replied with his husky voice, snapping in a salute as well.

The second private answered this time, "We've been told to retrieve you for debriefing."

"Goddamnit," muttered Barkley. Just when he thought he finally had some time off, work still managed to track him down, "On whose orders?" he asked.

"Councilor Udina's orders, sir"

A lump sunk to the bottom of his stomach, if Udina ordered his presence, then something must be amuck, but what? He recalled recent rumors of Commander Shepard claiming a dormant race of sentient machines, known as the Reapers, hell bent on harvesting organic life every fifty-thousand years, were returning within a couple of months. These rumors spread like wildfire throughout the Alliance, the citadel, and the galactic nation as a whole, but Barkley denied such rumors. He immediately tossed aside his assumptions once he heard about Shepard sending an asteroid into the Alpha Relay, wiping out over three hundred thousand batarians in the process. Only because Shepard learned that an imminent Reaper invasion would be upon the galaxy if action wasn't taken, but that was six months ago. Could all the rumors actually be true? Well, there was only one way to find out. Barkley straightened up and followed the two marines out of Purgatory.

Councilor Donnel Udina, not the most pleasant person Barkley ever met. His nose was always hunched like he smelled something fishy, and his awful dye job really made him stand out. The latter is what Barkley came to a conclusion as to why he had such a gigantic stick up his ass. But he did fight for humanity's stake in the galaxy, Barkley gave him that. Barkley glanced around the office noting how bright and open everything seemed to be due to the whole wall behind the councilor's desk being glass; leaving quite the view of the Presidium. Udina noticed the Commander entering his office and motioned for him to sit down.

"I'm assuming you don't know why you're here," asked Udina in a nasally stark voice.

"You are correct councilor," replied Barkley grabbing the first seat he came up to. "I was told you wanted to speak to me."

"I do," Udina replied while shifting through papers. "Ah, here we go."

With a flick of his left wrist Udina brought up the briefing on his vid screen and synched it to a datapad in his right, he handed the datapad to Barkley. Hesitantly, Barkley took the datapad. Barkly wasn't the kind of man to go into things blind, he liked to know where he stood and what he was up against. This was unknown, a variable he couldn't control, or bother analyzing. He had to plunge in headfirst and take it in strides.

"That datapad has three dossiers on it for you to read."

"Dossiers?" Barkley answered, "What am I exactly going to be doing with these?"

"Commander, do you watch the news?" Udina replied ignoring the question.

"Not really, but if you don't mind me asking again, why am I reading these dossiers?"

Udina ignored him again, "The Reapers have invaded Earth, Commander." Udina leaned in his chair, resting his arms on his desk and looking directly at Barkley, with grief in his eyes. "You have heard of the Reapers, correct?"

Barkley felt the lump in his stomach erupt, "They're actually real? Shepard was right?"

"They're very much real and regretfully, yes. Shepard was right about their inevitable invasion."

Barkley's immediate thoughts were of his family on Earth, he hadn't seen them in years. Work always got in the way and the cost to travel from the Citadel to Earth was always more than he wanted to spend. So he settled for calls over the extranet and the occasional message back and forth. At least he wasn't married; he had seen plenty of marriages crumble from the weight of the military and he did not want to go through that.

"What are we doing to stop them," Barkley asked hearing his voice crack, "What have we done to prevent this from happening?"

Udina's brow creased and he turned toward the vid screen tapping the upper right hand corner of it. A vid begin to play, a news report of the devastation happening on Earth. Entire skylines were burning, smoke plagued the streets, and screams of citizens filled the office. Barkley watched as skyscraper tall machines blasted buildings apart, incinerating anything near them. He knew, right then and there, that he was watching the extinction of the human race. "There is nothing that we could've done to prepare for this!" Udina said with the pain and loss in his voice becoming more noticeable, "I knew many people back on Earth, Commander. I'm sad to say I won't be seeing many of those people again, so I apologize for my… rash behavior."

"I understand, but we should've heeded Shepard's warnings!" The image of a whole city becoming a smoking crater in seconds was burned into his mind. "We could've prevented some of this!"

"That's why you're hear, Commander." Udina said in kind. "The council has put into motion the start of a task force to help combat the Reapers."

Barkley glanced at the datapad in his hand, "Like the Spectres…don't you think this is a little too late, Councilor?"

"Time is not a factor anymore," rebutted Udina, "What we need to do now is act. In your hands is the start of that, with the authority of the council, I and a few others were able to locate three others, like yourself. A team, so to speak, a team that can help assist in the liberation of colonies under Reaper control and extraction of its citizens."

Baffled by the resolution of things, Barkley took in Udina's words and asked, "Why me then?"

"Looking at your records, you were up for promotion, and we needed an individual with the authority and experience to lead this team. You've fought on more planets then any man dreams of and you've fought with more species then any man could think of." Udina answered.

This was true, right when Barkley graduated from the N7 program he was immediately thrown into the thick of it. He gladly accepted it as well, the experience of a lifetime it was, and still is. Barkley was one of the few to be placed in cross-species training, hence the experience with different species. Placed in a squad of all turians on their home world of Palaven, he recalled the pride of being given the honor, by the man himself Admiral David Anderson. Those months were tough, but hell of good time. He made some lifelong friends those days; he smiled at the thought of having more alien friends then human ones.

"How are four guys then, going to be able to make a difference against something like that?" Barkley questioned, pointing at the frozen still of a Reaper on the vid screen.

"Like I said before, the purpose of this team is to help liberate colonies and extract civilians from Reaper control."

Barkley gave up; it was useless getting answers, or any information out of this man. He turned on the datapad and began to scroll through the dossiers. Something caught his eye; there were no humans on any of the three dossiers. He hesitated and asked anyway, "Councilor, why aren't there any humans on this squad? All I'm seeing is a batarian, a turian, and a quarian."

"The council wanted to show a united front against this Reaper threat," the Councilor held his breath and chose his words carefully. "We can only win this war if we stand united as a whole, not as separate entities. It's a great honor to be a part of something like this, an even bigger honor leading something like this. A shame it's taken us till now to actually do something like it."

Barkley felt the familiar weight of responsibility fade onto his shoulders, "When do I start?"

"We're waiting for confirmation from the other individuals on that list, I'll notify you within the week," replied Udina immediately going back to his work. "You're excused, Commander."

Grateful for the opportunity to leave, Barkley got out of his chair and exited the councilor's office.

"Well, this is going to be fun." He muttered to himself as he walked down the stairs of the embassy and into the crowds of the oncoming lobby.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Reaper War: Day 7

Barkley found himself leaning against one of the many railings in the Presidium. The Presidium grounds stretched out before him; the view…breathtaking. Even though it was fake, that's what always bugged Barkley about the Presidium well the Citadel in general. It was an artificial reimagining of the real thing; the warm sunshine; even the lush grass and the air he was breathing. He missed Earth; real sunshine on his skin and real air in his lungs, but according to Alliance reports, he might not be seeing Earth the way it was for a long time.

He hadn't been able to reach his family either; scenarios of why he couldn't reach them ran through his head. Subtly he shoved those thoughts out of his mind, he can't think of them right now. Maybe he should've visited more often…a gripping pain in his stomach made him snap back to the task at hand. His mission: the squad he was in charge of. The team he was single-handily going to lead against the Reapers, a now very real threat to the galaxy. Barkley got the call from Udina around midnight (Earth time), Barkley never was fully able to adjust to the Citadel's 20-hour day cycle, this caused him to stay up during most nights. Answering Udina's call on the first ring he was able to have more than enough time to prepare for the debriefing with his team. Barkley was unsure how to go about proceeding with each individual who were coming from different backgrounds, races, and cultures. This on top of everything else made things a bit complicated. How was he supposed to appeal to them? Leave an impression that he can carry this team through hell and back? He just didn't know.

After receiving the councilor's call, Barkley spent the remaining half of the night researching each individual and learning about their different races. Granted he was doing this minutes after he left the councilor's office, but what more could there be to know? Apparently a lot. The accolades of the batarian and turian were sublime to say the least. Each had experience in all types of combat and reading about them made Barkley humble. The batarian was a ruthless solider, loyal to the mission, but was prejudice against anything that didn't have four eyes. The turian on the other hand was a different story; her name rung a bell from Barkley's past. A squad mate he had during his time with the turian military on Palaven; the two had history together. What he recalled from his time with her, he remembered her biotic ability and loyalty to her squad. She would never leave a single man, or woman, behind. A characteristic the Turian Hierarchy wasn't too pleased with, they believed in giving their life for their country and military. As long as one turian was left standing, the battle was worth dying for. But not her, she valued life and that's what Barkley respected about her. The quarian's files were classified, scratch that, they were non-existent. Like someone or a group of someone's, wanted nothing to do with him, a note Barkley wrote down. Instead of researching the quarian Barkley decided to learn more about the quarians as a whole, a culture that was born from self-tragedy and followed by three centuries of self-quarantine; traveling from system to system.

Checking the time on his omni-tool, Barkley decided to head towards the debriefing. The debriefing or squad "get together", what Barkley really thought it was, resided in one of the embassy's many conference rooms. Finding the conference room was going to be a pain, but he kindly shoved that thought out of his head as well, deciding that the view of the Presidium was a more pressing matter. He had a great view too; the ever rising elevator kept broadening his view of the scenery in front of him. Taking a quick peak below him, instantly realizing that was a bad idea, he lifted his head back up. Heights, he wasn't a big fan of heights. Fighting to push the vertigo away he stepped off the elevator.

The ruckus could faintly be heard from the lobby, but Barkley just assumed it was the ringing in his ears. This turned out to be false the closer he got to his assigned conference room. He looked up at the holodisplay above the room, 7B, what was his conference room number again? Ah yes, 7B.

"Well, shit." Barkley cursed as he double checked the room number on his datapad.

Inhaling and then exhaling, he tapped the door's opening mechanism. The door split in two, both parts sliding away to reveal the chaos within. The batarian was yelling something obscene at the turian, who ignored him as she watched the door slide open, a brief turian smile creeping across her face.

"You look like shit, Charles."

"Boy, have I missed that mouth of yours, Nel." He grinned as the two met and performed an awkward, "Hug, nah let's shake on it, but what about the hug" kind of greeting.

"I see you've been making friends," Barkley pointed out nodding towards the batarian.

"Name is Shroud, human." The batarian spat, his words filled with venom. Barkley kindly offered his hand, which Shroud bluntly declined. "Get that thing away from me."

"Alright then, what were you two…eh…discussing?" asked Barkley.

Nel glanced at Shroud and then turned her head towards Barkley; flexing her mandibles. "The reasoning as to why the batarians were wiped out the instant the Reapers invaded."

Shroud flinched at her words and abruptly closed the space between the two, getting right in her face. "My people are dead, turian. Yet, you stand here mocking their deaths; dancing on their graves!"

"You, and your people, brought this on yourselves! By being violent, irrational, and hostile to any species to come in contact with you, refusing any help offered. Without allies you stood no chance and standing here in front of me, bitching about the loss of your people, is not going to bring them back!" She added, jabbing one of her fingers into his chest.

Letting his rage get the best of him, Shroud clenched his fist and threw it forward, "Why you little—"

He was cut off by Nel grabbing his incoming fist and bending it to the side and around his back, putting Shroud into a hold that he was unable to escape.

"Watch yourself, batarian." Nel whispered into his ear

"Well played, Princess." He replied, face contorted by pain and anger.

"Alright, let's knock it off!" Barkly yelled throwing himself between the two.

"Pfft." Nel answered releasing Shroud from her hold.

Grimacing, but trying to remain in control, Shroud backed off and begun stretching his arm, "I wasn't going to hurt her…much."

"I beg to differ." A voice said behind him.

"The fuck?" Shroud screamed as he backed away, tripping over a chair and smacking his head on the table as he fell.

"Graceful as ever these batarians are," the figure pointed out as he materialized out of the thin air, powering down his tactical cloak, revealing the suited stature of a quarian. He bent down and put a hand out for Shroud to grab, who smacked it away.

"Go to hell, Suit rat." Shroud mumbled touching his head and revealing a small trickle of blood coming down his face.

Ignoring the insult the quarian withdrew his hand and approached Nel and Barkley, both who were chuckling about the spectacle they both just witnessed. He extended his hand in turn, both accepted the gesture and exchanged greetings.

"Jaeger and I am at your service," the quarian said as he bowed forward. "It's a pleasure to be meeting you."

Barkley shook his hand and summoned his newly acquired quarian knowledge, "Just Jaeger? What about your ship name?"

This stunned Jaeger; looking away he replied "I'm surprised you noticed that, Commander. Assuming you know that, you must know then why it's like that?"

"You're a goddamned exile! You betrayed your own people, you're worse than your people! You're the bottom feeder's bottom feeder, traitor!" shouted Shroud, as he stood up and glared at the quarian. "How can I work with someone like him?"

"Enough," interrupted Barkley as he stepped in, to prevent any further violence, "We're all on the same team here and fighting only one enemy, not each other." He stepped back and flicked his finger across his datapad, sending the image to a screen on the other side of the conference room.

"This is what we're fighting," Barkley said as he played the video; a montage spliced together showcasing the destruction of the Reapers: Buildings burning their flames licking the skyline, civilians desperately avoiding their imminent demise, and large mechanical figures destroying anything in their path. This destruction deafened any previous hostilities between the individuals; the threat of galactic genocide can do that.

"Spirts, how do we stop something of that magnitude?" Nel questioned, breaking the eerie silence in the room. "It's impossible."

"The turian is right," Shroud admitted, "It took a fleet to take down the one that attacked the Citadel. We're just a squad."

Barkley looked around the room, noticing the despair in everyone's face, "Our job isn't fighting the Reapers, leave that to our military. Our job is to extract and save any colonists from the Reapers. This is off the record, we're not going to be thanked or remembered when this is over so throw any of those dreams out the window. What we're here to do is help people and you can bet I'm going to do my damned best to make that happen. I expect the same of all of you."

Barkley looked around the room at the faces staring at him; he just hoped he could own up to his own words. "Great speech, Commander," Nel said, breaking the silence, once again. "What's our first assignment?"

Looking at Nel, grateful for having her on the team, Barkley went back to his presentation, "Our first assignment: The liberation of Erszbat."

Shroud's head snapped towards Barkley's direction, "We're going to Erszbat?" This time desperation and sadness leaked from his words as he asked the question. "I have, well had, family there."

"I'm sorry to hear that," replied Barkley, knowing too well how watching the destruction of your home felt. He looked back at the screen and then at his future squad mates, "Any questions?"

"When do we leave?" Shroud demanded.

"The information will be sent to your—"

"Human. When do we leave?" he asked again, stepping towards Barkley.

"Tomorrow, but—"

Shroud already left the conference room, making sure to run into Jaeger on his way out.

"Sorry about that," Barkley said acknowledging Shroud and his actions.

"It's alright, Commander," Jaeger answered, "We can do this." With that he patted Barkley on the back and left the room as well.

Barkley put his head down and exhaled, "I hope he's right about that."

Nel placed a hand on Barkley's arm, letting it linger for a couple seconds before removing it, "Don't worry, he's right. We can do this." She whispered as she left the room.

Feeling her hand still there, Barkley touched the same spot and then began massaging his temples, "I sure hope so."


End file.
